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salvatorep31016834
salvatorep31016834
Participating Frequently
August 14, 2025
Question

photoshop 2025 abnormal disk space consumption

  • August 14, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 1208 views

Hi, for a few days now, whenever I open and close Photoshop files, I've noticed a gradual decrease in free space on my system disk, which isn't recovered until Photoshop crashes. This is definitely a Photoshop or system issue, as it never happened before and still doesn't happen on my old computer. Has anyone had or has a similar problem? I'm working on an M1 MacBook Pro with Sequoia version 15.6.

3 replies

Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
August 29, 2025

Hi @salvatorep31016834,


Thanks for confirming the steps you’ve already tried and for providing the disk space numbers. Based on your description, it looks like Photoshop isn’t properly releasing scratch disk space during the session, which explains the gradual drop until you restart.


A couple of things to help narrow this down:
 • Please update to Photoshop 26.10, released this month, if you haven’t already.
 • In Preferences > Performance, temporarily disable Use Graphics Processor and check if behavior changes.
 • What is your scratch disk currently set to?
 • Could you let us know where your working files are stored (internal SSD/ external or network Drive)?
 • Does Photoshop have Full Disk Access enabled under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access on macOS?
 • Could you also copy & paste your System Info (Help > System Info) here? This will give the team more insight into your setup.

 

Having your system info and scratch disk details will help us check your configuration.


Best,
Anshul Saini

salvatorep31016834
salvatorep31016834Author
Participating Frequently
September 2, 2025

Hi, I'll try to answer all your questions in the same order.
My version of Photoshop is already updated to 26.10.
I tried enabling and disabling "Use graphics processor"  and running a batch file processing script of 400 files. With the graphics processor enabled, the initial free space was 211 GB, and the final free space was 167 GB. I repeated the same batch with the graphics processor disabled. The result: initial space was still 211 GB, and final space was 210 GB.
Regarding the scratch disk setting, I've attached a screenshot.
The working files are stored on an external SSD.
Yes, Photoshop has full disk access enabled.
Finally, I've attached a screenshot with the machine configuration.
I'll conclude by saying that I've been working with this configuration for about 3 years without any problems until a few weeks ago, and that no changes have been made to the work system or configuration.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 2, 2025
    quote

    With the graphics processor enabled, the initial free space was 211 GB, and the final free space was 167 GB. I repeated the same batch with the graphics processor disabled. The result: initial space was still 211 GB, and final space was 210 GB.


    By @salvatorep31016834

     

    I'm beginning to suspect that there might be a bug somewhere, but it's hard to tell if it's Photoshop or the operating system. We see variations of this quite often.

     

    By the sound of it, this is the system pagefile, not the Photoshop scratch disk. Here's my reasoning:

     

    What I've noticed over some time, on several different machines and GPUs, is that the GPU tends to use whatever memory is available. I've noticed that GPU memory usage tends to go to 80 or 90% of whatever amount is available, and then level out. It never goes to max, but just below. Which is not a problem with discrete GPUs that have their own onboard VRAM.

     

    But it appears to be an issue on systems with integrated GPUs - which, crucially, don't have their own memory, but use shared system memory. Then the GPU seems to just keep claiming memory from the system. An operating system is designed so that if memory runs out, it goes to virtual memory on disk, aka the system pagefile. In other words, the GPU memory usage doesn't stop when it should. And that could be a bug.

     

    Sorry, not a solution to your problem. But I have a strong sense there's a pattern here.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 14, 2025

    You need to provide some numbers. How much is consumed? How much free disk space do you have?

     

    Photoshop allocates disk space for the scratch disk. This is expanded as needed, but by design not released again until the application exits. 

     

    Photoshop's total memory I/O is normally much more than any RAM you may have installed. There is no such thing as "enough RAM". So temporary working data are written to disk, aka the scratch disk. The scratch disk contains all history states for all open documents, plus some overhead. Each history state potentially adds the full uncompressed file size. In addition, some advanced functions lik smart objects and the new AI-based functions use the system pagefile for temporary storage.

     

    A very effective way to reduce the size of the scratch file is to reduce history states.

    salvatorep31016834
    salvatorep31016834Author
    Participating Frequently
    August 16, 2025

    Hi, you're right. Without references it's impossible to understand the problem. The free space on the system SSD at the start of the session was 217 GB. After two or three hours of working on Photoshop, at best, it dropped to 40-50 GB. At worst, the system crashes. Photoshop settings are essentially the default ones.

    salvatorep31016834
    salvatorep31016834Author
    Participating Frequently
    August 16, 2025

    Up until a week ago, the problem didn't exist; it occurred suddenly and without having changed anything in the settings. I assume some files got corrupted somewhere

    Srishti Bali
    Community Manager
    Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 14, 2025

    Hi @salvatorep31016834

     

    Sorry to hear about this inconvenience. It seems Photoshop may be leaving behind temporary cache or scratch disk files instead of clearing them when you close files. Please try the steps in the link below and let us know if that resolves the issue:

    salvatorep31016834
    salvatorep31016834Author
    Participating Frequently
    August 16, 2025

    Hi, you nailed the problem. I also believe Photoshop doesn't clear the allocated space when it closes the file. I'd already visited the page you linked, and the settings are correct. As I mentioned below, the free space on the system disk is about 217 GB, which gradually decreases during Photoshop sessions, reaching a few MB after several hours of work. This forces me to close and reopen the program every couple of hours to free up space.

    salvatorep31016834
    salvatorep31016834Author
    Participating Frequently
    August 16, 2025

    I've already tried manually deleting the Photoshop cache from the system library. Deleting the Photoshop preferences file. Uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop. But none of these actions helped.

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